Byju's co-founder Divya Gokulnath says personal attacks ‘unfair', adds: ‘If we were sitting on millions of dollars…'

Mint

19-05-2025

Divya Gokulnath, Byju's co-founder and wife of the unicorn's disgraced founder-CEO Byju Raveendran, has refuted allegations that the couple diverted loans to personal accounts, claiming they do not have funds to even hire legal representation in the United States.
'If we truly had hundreds of millions of dollars, we would have had no trouble affording legal representation', Divya Gokulnath claimed in an interview with news agency ANI.
Divya Gokulnath told the agency that lawyers are demanding 'millions of dollars' in fees to represent them in US courts. She stated, 'Today, in the US, judgements are passed back to back to us by one court. Because we don't have representation.'
'I'll show you emails where they say, give us a million dollars. Lawyers are saying, Give us a million dollars or we won't represent. Where do I get the million dollars from? If we were sitting on 533 million dollars, this would not be the situation, right? We would have been fighting in the courts. We would have thrown money at lawyers,' she added.
Notably, BYJU'S is fighting legal battles over unpaid debts across courts in the US and India.
She further called 'personal attacks' on her and Byju Raveendran 'unfair'.
'Honestly, I don't care about the money. It comes, it goes. And Lakshmi can come and go. Saraswati is with us. Goddess Saraswati is always with us. For me, it's about the tarnishing which has happened, which I feel is so unfair,' she said.
Gokulnath added, 'It was all about what we could do for our country. And not what the country can do for us. So we are a made in India, made by Indians, proudly made for the world's product, service, company, people, students-first company.'
She added that while many entrepreneurs move abroad to pursue their ventures, the couple's vision was to build BYJU'S as a homegrown "Make in India" success story.
'At the time when people were going abroad and setting up their companies because that was much more lucrative, we resisted it. We said, no, this has to be a make in India story. We will make our products in India. We will give our services from India and we will be an example for the world in education. Because education belongs to India,' Gokulnath said.
Divya Gokulnath also alleged that a targeted campaign of intimidation and pressure tactics was mounted aimed at isolating her husband, Byju Raveendran, by threatening those close to him, including family members, colleagues, and even legal counsel.
Referring to incidents where unknown individuals reportedly visited the homes of management personnel, Byju Raveendran, the founder and the CEO of BYJU's, expressed concern, stating, "People get scared when somebody walks in, intrudes into a home in the context of not having answers."
Despite all these troubles, Gokulnath asserted that it is the truth and the final mission that bind all of them together.
"I think indirectly that's what they're trying to say. They're saying stand-off, or maybe create a lot of reputational damage so that you say, okay, you know what, I'll stay out of this. It's not going to happen because there is something, there is truth that binds all of us together. There is the final mission that binds all of us together," she asserted.